Archived Workshops/References

Grasslands Monitoring and Management

Description

Grasslands make up a very large percent of Calfornia's natural landscape and contain a large number of sensitive plant and animal species. Over the past 20 years, organizations have increasingly set aside these lands for conservation. As the acreage of protected grasslands grow, conservation lands managers face a daunting task of adopting adaptive management programs to maintain sensitive species with complex and often unknown requirements. Meanwhile, a new age of ranching is dawning on California with numerous ranchers looking to manage their lands more sustainably. Ranchers and conservation lands managers alike are looking for effective and affordable methods to manage and monitor grassland ecosystems. And yet, there are few resources and little agreement on an approach. The Coastal Training Program has embarked on an effort to provide answers for our grassland managers. This website provides some of that information. Our ongoing workshops and less formal discussions are working to provide a better understanding of grassland functions, expected outcomes of management decisions, creating realistic management goals, and choosing monitoring techniques that are appropriate.

Training Programs


Defining the Science of Monitoring Grasslands for Management Goals	Sep 1, 2005
Focus Group: Grazing Management and Monitoring Toolbox - RDM Photomonitoring and a Novel Web Tool	Apr 17, 2007
Monitoring grasslands for native perennial grasses - May 24	May 24, 2007
Monitoring grasslands for native perennial grasses - June 7	Jun 7, 2007
Monitoring grasslands for native perennial grasses - July 10	Jul 10, 2007

Documents and Publications

TITLE DATE ADDED	AUTHOR SOURCE	DESCRIPTION
WORKSHOP MATERIALS
Monitoring Native Perennial Grasses DRAFT Handbook PDF, 90KB Jun 08 07	Dr. Lawrence Ford Elkhorn Slough Coastal Training Program 2007
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
Biological invasions by exotic grasses, the grass/fire cycle, and global change PDF, 3.6MB Nov 30 05	Carla M. D'Antonio and Peter M. Vitousek Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 23:63-87 1992
Cattle Grazing Impacts on Annual Forbs and Vegetation Composition of Mesic Grasslands in California. PDF, 185KB Jun 30 05	Hayes, G., and K. D. Holl Conservation Biology 17:1694-1702 2003a
Invasive plants in wildland ecosystems: merging the study of invasion processes with management needs PDF, 908KB Nov 30 05	Carla M. D'Antonio Nelroy E. Jackson Carol C. Horvitz Rob Hedberg Front Ecol Environ 2(10):513-521 2004
Site-specific responses of native and exotic species to disturbances in a mesic grassland community. PDF, 237KB Jun 30 05	Hayes, G., and K. D. Holl Applied Vegetation Science 6: 235-244 2003b
The Measurement and Value of Plant Height in the Study of Herbaceous Vegetation PDF, 358KB Jul 12 07	Harold F. Heady Ecology 38(2):313-320 April 1957
OTHER INFORMATION
CNPS % Cover Diagram PDF, 1.8MB Jul 28 05	Elkhorn Slough Coastal Training Program
Ecology and restoration of California grasslands with special emphasis on the influence of fire and grazing on native grassland species PDF, 432KB Sep 07 05	D’Antonio, C., Bainbridge, S., Kennedy, C., Bartolome, J., Reynolds, S. Department of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley 2002	This 'white paper' reviews trends in California grasslands in response to grazing and fire.
Interpreting indicators of rangeland health, BLM PDF, 5.4MB	Mike Pellant, Patrick Shaver, David A. Pyke, and Jeffrey E. Herrick Bureau of Land Management 2000	A publication used by many federal land management and advisory agencies that includes standards, monitoring protocol, and data sheets for rangelands.
Management Goals, Workshop Scientific Panel on Grasslands Management PDF, 18KB Sep 02 05	Workshop Scientific Panel on Grasslands Management September 1, 2005	This is the list of goals with suggested monitoring tools that we developed and discussed at the workshop
Measuring and Monitoring Plant Populations PDF, 5.1MB Jul 12 07	Caryl L. Elzinga Ph.D., Daniel W. Salzer, and John W.Willoughby Bureau of Land Management 1998
Northern Coastal Scrub and Coastal Prairie PDF, 342KB Jul 09 07	Lawrence D. Ford and Grey F. Hayes UC Press: Terrestrial Vegetation of California 2007
Valley Grassland PDF, 370KB Jul 09 07	James Bartolome, James Barry, and Tom Griggs UC Press: Terrestrial Vegetation of California 2007

Links

TITLE	DATE ADDED
National Park Service Monitoring Resources http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/monitor/index.cfm	Aug 09 06
Statistical tools http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/people/doaklab/natconserv/index.html	Sep 02 05
USGS Statistics Software Tools http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/software.html	Sep 07 05